A VERY RARE 'YAOZHOU' GREEN-GLAZED 'TIGER' BOWL JIN DYNASTY

the short straight foot rising to steeply curved sides to a ribbed flared rim, the interior carved with a lively tiger crouching in a clearing beside rockwork and peony

This very rare bowl is in very good condition with the exception of some glaze and firing imperfections including five small glaze pulls to the interior around the tiger, a 2cm., long hairline firing line to the inside edge of the rim, some minute blisters and glaze scartches.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

It is rare to find a 'Yaozhou' bowl moulded with an animal design although a shallow example carved with two cranes standing amongst dense peony and lotus was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3^rd November 1996, lot 529; and another dish moulded with a single large bird perched on a tree branch, from the Yaozhou Ware Museum, was included in the exhibition The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Yamaguchi Kenritsu Hagi Bijutsukan, Yamaguchi, 1997, cat. no. 156.

The complexity of the design found on this bowl is comparable to a vessel sold in these rooms, 19^th June 2002, lot 18, and now in the Meiyintang collection, moulded with a garden scene with two demon figures, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (II), London, 2006, pl. 1495; and another bowl moulded with a scene of two figures in a field kicking a ball in front of a trellised fence enclosing a garden, offered in our New York rooms, 21/22^nd September 2005, lot 37, from the Bai Ma Xuan collection.

While the depiction of tigers on vessels are extremely rare, they appear on paintings of the period which may have served as the inspiration for the present scene. See a painting titled The Tiger by the 12^th century artist Mu Qi (c. 1180 – c.1270) in the collection of the Daitoku-ji, Kyoto, published in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Painting, vol. III, pl. 342.